Johnny Stecchino (1991)
Good hearted but not very wordly-wise, Dante is happy driving the school bus for a group of mentally handicapped children, while feeling he is somehow missing out on life and love. So he is very excited when after nearly being knocked down by her car he meets Maria, who seems immediately enamoured of him. He is soon invited to her sumptuous Palermo villa, little suspecting that this is part of a plot. He bears an amazing likeness to Maria's stool-pigeon gangster husband and it would be convenient for them if the mobster, in the shape of Dante, was seen to be dead and buried.
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When you think about Benigni, humor in all it's varieties and unbelievable situations are dominant motives. And again, his (Dante) partner is amazing actress and producer Nicoletta Braschi (Maria). In the movie, Dante starting as an ordinary, but a little bit strange guy. His accidental meeting with Maria change his life at all. He is going to visits her at Sicily, but doesn't know about her husband (Johnny Stechinno) who is targeted mafia boss. The biggest problem for him is amazing similarity with him (also stared by Benigni), but as a naive man Dante thinks that the biggest problem is about one stolen banana. Misunderstanding is key feature. Benigni acting is always amazing, maybe the same as combination of actors in old speechless movies (for example Charlie Chaplin in ''City Lights'') and Luis De Funes (in ''L'Avare'' for example). My big recommendation for all who prefer comic movies, Italian landscapes and of course - Benigni.
Before Roberto Benigni became a household name in the States, he directed and starred in this totally wacky movie about an ordinary man mistaken for a mobster while looking for a woman (Nicoletta Braschi) in Sicily. I guess that mostly, "Johnny Stecchino" is a big excuse to be silly, but it's definitely what Benigni does best. The movie is like a combination of a Charlie Chaplin flick and a Looney Tunes cartoon cranked up to maximum energy. It's a fun romp in every way, shape and form. And it will probably make you want to go to Sicily. All in all, a really good time.And don't forget: stay away from the bananas!
A naive and shy school bus driver is a perfect match to a Mafioso who is wanted dead. Stecchino, his nickname, or Toothpick, is invited to Sicily for a holiday. The plan is to exploit the physical likeness of the two for killing him, so the Mafioso can take advantage of the others believing him dead...I think this is an excellent movie. I found it utterly hilarious, perhaps one of the funniest Italian movies ever. Of course the language is Italian, but there is the edition with English subtitles. But!!!... you gotta watch it in Italian. English subtitles totally spoil all the fun of the movie, and the jokes can NOT be translated. I don't recommend it to those who don't understand Italian.
The combination of terrific physical comedy with the clever dialogue makes this subtitled movie glad you know how to read. Roberto Benigni takes a common theme of a look a like and turns it into one terrific comic vignette after another. His conversations of misunderstandings are brilliant.